Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a Midwestern working-class mining town. He had five brothers, including the Jesuit fellow-activist and poet, Daniel Berrigan. His mother, Frieda (née Fromhart), was of German descent and deeply religious. His father, Tom Berrigan, was a second-generation Irish-Catholic, trade union member, socialist and railway engineer.[1]

From the beginning, he stood with the urban poor. He rejected the traditional, isolated stance of the Church in black communities. He was also incurably secular; he saw the Church as one resource, bringing to bear on the squalid facts of racism the light of the Gospel, the presence of inventive courage and hope. [1]

Berrigan was first imprisoned in 1962/1963. During his many prison sentences he would often hold bible study class and offer legal educational support to other inmates. As a priest, his activism and arrests met with deep disapproval from the leadership of the Catholic Church and Berrigan was moved to Epiphany Apostolic College, the Josephite seminary college in Newburgh, New York, but he continued his protests. Working with Jim Forest, in 1964 he founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship in New York City. He was moved again to St. Peter Claver Parish in West Baltimore, Maryland, from where he started the Baltimore Interfaith Peace Mission, leading lobbies and demonstrations.[1]

In the 1960s, after activity in civil rights, Berrigan and others began taking increasingly radical steps to bring attention to the anti-war movement. The group known as the "The Baltimore Four" occupied the Selective Service Board in the Customs House, Baltimore, on Friday, October 27, 1967.[2] 'The Four' were: two Catholics, Berrigan and artist Tom Lewis; and two Protestants, writer David Eberhardt, and the Rev. James L. Mengel III. Mengel was a United States Air Force veteran, United Church of Christ pastor, and missionary to Ghana, West Africa; and Asia, where he also served as an Auxiliary Civilian Chaplain at Osan AFB, Daegu, South Korea. Performing a sacrificial, blood-pouring protest, using their own blood and that from poultry purchased from the Gay St. Market, they poured it over records.[2][3] In the trial of The Baltimore Four, Mengel stated that U.S. military forces had killed and maimed not only humans, but also animals and vegetation. Mengel agreed to the action and donated blood, but decided not to actually pour blood; instead he distributed the paperback book Good News for Modern Man (a version of the New Testament) to draft board workers, newsmen, and police. [2] Berrigan, in their written statement, noted that "This sacrificial and constructive act" was meant to protest "the pitiful waste of American and Vietnamese blood in Indochina". [1]

The trial of "The Baltimore Four" was postponed due to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the subsequent riots in Baltimore and other U.S. cities. Eberhardt and Lewis served jail time and Berrigan was sentenced to six years in federal prisons.[4][5]

In 1968, six months after The Baltimore Four protest, after his release on bail, Berrigan decided to repeat the protest in a modified form. A local high school physics teacher, Dean Pappas, helped to concoct homemade napalm. Nine activists, including Berrigan's Jesuit brother Daniel, later became known as the Catonsville Nine. They walked into the offices of the local draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, removed 600 draft records, doused them in napalm and burnt them in a lot outside of the building.[2][5] The Catonsville Nine, who were all Catholics, issued a statement:

We confront the Roman Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor.[2]

Berrigan was convicted of conspiracy and destruction of government property on November 8, 1968, but was bailed for 16 months while the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court rejected the appeal and Berrigan and three others went into hiding. 12 days later Berrigan was arrested by the FBI and jailed in Lewisburg.[1][6] All nine were sentenced to three years in prison.[2][5][7]

Berrigan attracted the notice of federal authorities again when he and six other anti-war activists were caught trading letters alluding to kidnapping Henry Kissinger and bombing steam tunnels.[8] They were charged with 23 counts of conspiracy including plans for kidnap and blowing up heating tunnels in Washington. [1]Although the government spent $2 million on the Harrisburg Seven trial in 1972, it did not win a conviction.[9][10] This was one of the first reversals suffered by the U.S. government in such cases, another being The Camden 28 in 1973.

Other non-violent actions against the Vietnam War, the government and the military were organized by a group that were called by the FBI and the press the "Catholic Left." Phil Berrigan either helped to plan or inspired these actions, along with many other organisers such as Jerry Elmer. The characteristic of these actions was that each action was stringently non-violent. Also, the action would be done by a small group of people willing to take responsibility whether or not it meant facing jail time. The planning for the actions was always a series of mini retreats in which those who finally acted worked to further their political and personal commitment to non-violence. The following are some of those actions:

nine men and women, seven were priests and Religious Sisters protesting against the Dow Chemical Company and its production of napalm for use in the Vietnam conflict). The DC Nine were later tried in Washington, D.C., but an appeal was won in their favor. Some jail time was served.[11]

The Milwaukee 14 against the Milwaukee Draft Boards, September 24, 1968

fourteen men burned 10,000 1-A draft files. After being arrested, they spent a month in prison, unable to raise bail set at $415,000. Father James Groppi came to their aid, co-chairing the Milwaukee 14 Defense Committee. Members were later placed on trial and many did considerable jail time.[12]

The New York Action

included men who were Jesuit priests at the time. Against the New York City Draft Boards.

The Chicago 15

The Boston Eight

included other priests and Religious Sisters. These people stole files out of 4 Boston Draft Boards in order to prove that the State of Massachusetts was drafting mostly Puerto Ricans and poor whites to fill their quotas. No charges were ever brought, though the participants claimed responsibility the day after the action to the press in Boston, and again during the November Moratorium in Washington, DC.

The East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives

an action against the Philadelphia Draft Boards and General Electric, which had contracts specifically to create incendiary weapons for use in Vietnam.

The Commission to Investigate the FBI

burglary of an FBI field office in Media, PA, to expose the methods of J. Edgar Hoover against war protesters.[13]

The Camden 28 Group

action against the Camden area draft board. The group was arrested and the trial resulted acquittal on all charges.[14] A book has been written about this action by Ed Mcgowan and a documentary made by Giacchino, which appeared on PBS TV.

The Buffalo Five

an action coordinated with the Camden Action against Buffalo Draft Boards. Five of the group were put on trial and they were found guilty, however Judge John Curtain handed out no jail sentences. His statement at sentencing indicated support for the action.

the plan was to put people in the government like Henry Kissinger under citizens arrest for the waging of an illegal war. Phillip Berrigan and others were arrested for conspiracy. They had only gathered together to discuss the idea.[15]

In 1968, Berrigan signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[16]

Berrigan, while still a priest, married former nun Elizabeth McAlister in 1970, although the marriage was not revealed until 1973. Together they founded Jonah House in Baltimore, a community to support resistance to war.[1]

On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Daniel, and six others (the 'Plowshares Eight') began the Plowshares Movement when they entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made. They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts.[17][18] On 10 April 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Berrigan helped set up Jonah House as the community headquarters of the organisation, a terraced house in Reservoir Hill. The headquarters later was moved to St. Peter the Apostle Cemetery in West Baltimore.[1]

Berrigan's last Plowshares action occurred in December 1999, when a group of protesters hammered on A-10 Warthog warplanes held at the Warfield Air National Guard Base. He was indicted for malicious destruction of property and sentenced to 30 months in prison. [1][19] He was released on 14 December 2001. In his lifetime he had spent about 11 years in jails and prisons for civil disobedience. [1][20]

In one of his last public statements, Berrigan said,

The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard against Bush and his warrior clones. Bush and his minions slip out of control, determined to go to war, determined to go it alone, determined to endanger the Palestinians further, determined to control Iraqi oil, determined to ravage further a suffering people and their shattered society. The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington D.C., can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity.[20]

On December 6, 2002, Philip Berrigan died of liver and kidney cancer at the age of 79 at Jonah House in Baltimore.[1][21] In a last statement, he said

I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.[1]

Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus at Boston University, paid this tribute to Berrigan saying "Mr. Berrigan was one of the great Americans of our time. He believed war didn't solve anything. He went to prison again and again and again for his beliefs. I admired him for the sacrifices he made. He was an inspiration to a large number of people."[1]

The funeral was held at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore and he was buried in West Baltimore cemetery. Berrigan's widow, Elizabeth McAlister, and others still maintain Jonah House in Baltimore and a website that details all Plowshares activities.[1][22] He was survived by four brothers, Daniel (recently deceased), John, Jim and Jerome; his wife, Elizabeth McAlister; and their three children, Frida, Jerry and Kate, all of whom are also activists in the peace movement.[1]